Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

What is your personal definition of security? Try to think about how you would act in the role of keeping one property safe and to prevent problems.

My post does a lot of high school security work, such as football games and basketball games. I seem to be in the minority in how I operate at these events.

In my mind, the point of security is preventing problems. There are of course some problems that will occur no matter what.

Is it better to have a uniformed presence or a stealthy, secretive operation that nobody knows about?

As an explorer, I fully agree that I have no law enforcement authority. I am here to learn and to do volunteer my time for basic duties where the right to arrest and a gun on my hip is not necessary.

Here's two real scenarios:

At football games, the majority of the explorers prefer a stealthy operation. Some will drive around the parking lot of their personal vehicles for each 6-hour shift at football games and show no presence. At one point, when a few middle school kids were talking in a field owned by the school next to the football stadium, two explorers in golf carts (one being a powerful Gator) sped up without lights to scare the living crap out of them.

What are they going to do if one of those kids has a gun? Arrest them? Stab them? No. That won't work out.

In my viewpoint of my duties as an explorer, I have a firm belief that presence is key. I'm not going to be able to do much when I catch someone in that act of breaking a law or school corporation rule. While wearing a Class A law enforcement uniform, however, my presence can possibly prevent these things from happening.

So, although I did not work football games last year, when I started up with basketball games, I was the only one who was walking around inside the basketball court area, interacting with the public and making sure that they know that someone with a link to police officers and paramedics is there.
My "colleagues" preferred to sit in their cars and block off a drop-off to one of the major entrances. They just sat in a car with flashing lights all night.

I had an in depth conversation with someone and discussed all of this after noticing the problems that my post has.

So what is your view on security operations? If you were given the ability, like myself, to work security for high school sports events, would you choose to be unnoticed and stealthy, to surprise people breaking laws or rules (WHILE YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING LEGALLY!!!!) or would you prefer to have a known presence, for both the prevention of crime and the knowledge that someone is looking out for the safety of others?

While I can agree that having one explorer unseen to report major things that are occurring, in most cases in my post, these explorers try to act as if they had powers, though just leaving after scaring the heck out of someone.

In the case of the kids on the open field, what I would have done was appear with a presence, and tell them to return to the stadium or leave, instead of charging at top speed in a Gator with all lights off to scare them.

I'm looking for an in-depth educated discussion, because I really do want to know what you prefer: stealth vs. presence.

I would rather be seen because then their might not be problems because they would know there was security even if you can't do anyhting they might not know that.

I think that for your example of High School athletic events, presence wins. In that enviroment, the Department's goal is to prevent any problems from happening. Any uniformed presence will make a teen think twice about their actions (hopefully). If you sneak up on teens who are in the middle of doing something wrong, their adrenaline is going to be rushing, and they are going to be caught in the moment, and they are more likely to do something drastic.

As a real life example, and as a real life teen, I've been out with my friends when they have suggested sneaking into a game (ironically), but as they approached the back door, a man in a tan UPS-like uniform walked out. They thought it was a security guard, and quickly changed their route to the front door. The point of this story is that uniformed presence will prevent problems, because most teens can't tell the difference between a USPS uniform and a police uniform. Sneaking up on someone is more of an investigator or TAC officer's job. Like you said, DrummaDude, what would the explorers in the golfcart do if those kids took off and ran? Or pulled a gun? Or stole the golfcart?

So, I believe that from the Explorer perspective, presence wins over stealth.

exactly

Prescence.

Prescence, even if you are being stealthy, that doesn't mean much, because you can only catch so much crime before EVERYONE knows who you are and what you are doing. I believe that prevention is the key to stopping crime, even though it IS more fun to catch someone doing something wrong, that doesn't mean anything if say they already graffiti'd something, or broke something.

If you have a uniform presence at the football/basketball games then people are less likely to do something stupid because they don't want to be caught by the "Police." I don't care how much EXPLORER patches/insignia you have on your uniform people are going to see a uniform and think COP!

This is the same reason we (my post) doesn't allow explorers to wear uniforms on ride-alongs, because an officer might be some place where he/she can not see you, and someone see's a uniform thinks "Officer" then they come running up to you for help (best case) or worst case to harm you!

But, on the other hand. I would not want to be in uniform anywhere NEAR my high school football games (back when I was in high school). My high school was BAD for fights, and not being able to use ANY force to control a situation other than calling for an officer would NOT turn out good.

however, my presence can possibly prevent these things from happening.


I would rather be seen because then their might not be problems


So, I believe that from the Explorer perspective, presence wins over stealth.

In light of all the workplace violence and school shootings I don’t think that I’d want to be a uniformed, unarmed associate of a law enforcement agency providing security at a public event.

In the event that an active shooter situation does take place, and if you’re in a police-style uniform, I’m sure the gunman isn’t going to hesitate to try to take you out first – because you represent the police.

I’m not sure that I’d want to be in that position. Just a thought.

Well, thankfully, most of the time I'm not manning a door at basketball games. Most of the time it is a LEO at each ticket booth.

I know there are some very serious risks in this, but often I am not far from a LEO with a gun. I'm sure the school believes in presence, because at some games they hire up to 10 city officers to work a game. I realize my limits (not being armed).


But, on the other hand. I would not want to be in uniform anywhere NEAR my high school football games (back when I was in high school). My high school was BAD for fights, and not being able to use ANY force to control a situation other than calling for an officer would NOT turn out good.

If it gets really bad, my POV is, that you run and call for officers. If you absolutely cannot get away, you call for backup and defend yourself until you can get away. That is how the Indiana law says it and theres no reason your state's laws can't protect you if you are getting brought into the fight. I've already asked my advisor about this, and I got the generic "You should not be brought into dangerous situations, but if you do get hit, do what you have to do to get away."

What is the Department's directive on the matter? I really can't see an agency simply turning Explorers out in uniform without some kind of guidance or policy on the matter.

And for the record, I think visibility should prevail over stealth in this instance.